'Sud' of Radio Mirchi gives audio updates on Facebook

Sud, the popular RJ of Radio Mirchi, chats live with his fans on Facebook.

Sudarshan (Sud), who has been entertaining listeners on Radio Mirchi with his hilarious jokes from his book, Hansi ke phuwaare, and his unique style of talking, came live on Facebook and entertained people in a unique digital marketing initiative launched by Radio Mirchi on December 13.

This six hour live session on Facebook was unique because rather than giving just regular 'written status updates', Sud was responding to his fans and their questions through 'audio updates' in his typical style. This was probably the first time that any brand attempted to take a radio character and adapted it to a social media platform such as Facebook.

People responded with great enthusiasm to this initiative. Each update by Sud was consumed by more than 20,000 people. Fans asked funny questions and some personal ones, too. Bollywood actor Ajay Devgan was in the studio for sometime while Sud was live on Facebook.

Rahul Balyan, head, digital initiatives, Radio Mirchi, says, "While we always knew that Sud has a strong appeal across the cross section of our listeners, we realised the intensity of that affection for the first time through this activity."

Listeners shared their own jokes with Sud, and one lucky fan even had his joke selected to be read out by Sud as an audio update. All the posts are still live on the Radio Mirchi fan page on Facebook. He even composed and sang a farewell song on Facebook for his fans.

"We were actually overwhelmed by the positive responses to Sud. There were even requests for copies of 'Hansi ke phuwaare', the book of jokes that Sud reads from, which does not exist except on-air on Radio Mirchi and on our website, www.radiomirchi.com," adds Sud.

While talking about social media being used for marketing, Balyan says, "On Facebook, consumers can be lavish with their praise but can also be very vocal with their discontent. To get such a positive response to our Facebook initiative is a great testimony to the strength of our brand. Actually, one of the challenges that we have is to give a platform to our passionate fan base and such activities help us with this crucial interaction."